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Blossoming and fundraising for 85 years

The National Gardens Scheme, the charity known to thousands of garden-visiting enthusiasts in England and Wales, celebrates the start of its 85th year this week.

It was on May 28, 1927, that the first of 609 gardens opened their gates for charity to anyone who could pay the one shilling entry. Three days later a report of the scheme, the idea of Elsie Wagg, a member of the fundraising committee for the Queen’s Nursing Institute, was published in The Times.

The reporter, who had been to Hatfield House, noted: “If experience at Hatfield should prove to be general, as there is no reason to doubt, this experiment will be successful from all points of view.”